


Comfort

by CuriosityRedux



Series: Dragon Drabbles Berk [32]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, tw: loss, tw: miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 23:43:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16753729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriosityRedux/pseuds/CuriosityRedux
Summary: It's a difficult night in the Haddock home.





	Comfort

**Comfort**

**-**

“Hiccup.”

He was stirred by the sound of his wife’s soft voice. Though he couldn’t be sure if it was a dream or not, his name was accented by the shaking sound of unshed tears. The concern instantly roused him.

“Hiccup, wake up.”

Yes. Astrid was crying. Hiccup blinked awake, searching in the dark to find her face. She was stoic, but her brow was furrowed in a way he recognized with a twist of dread. That crinkle in her forehead had always meant she was moments away from a sob.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered, sitting up on his elbows. In the corner, Toothless was snoring quietly. Hiccup rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

Her eyes squeezed closed for a second, and then she took a steadying breath. “I need you to get up. I have to change the sheets.”

He stared at her in confusion, his tired brain trying to piece together the meaning of her words. “Why?” he asked, even as he sat up and pushed off his furs. 

Astrid’s face crumpled for a split second, but then she regained control, shaking her head. A trembling hand reached out and pushed him off of the mattress, and he stood, limping over to lean against his desk. With alarm and worry quickly shaking the dream dust from his brain, he watched his wife slide her legs out from under the blankets and stand. He could see now, even in the dim light colored by stray moonbeams. A dark blotch smeared over the skirt of her white nightgown, and an even blacker stain lay where she’d slept. Hiccup instantly understood.

“No,” he breathed, devastation crushing his chest. “ _Astrid._ " 

"I’ll be done in a second,” she told him, her throat sounding tight. Her hands pushed furs and pillows aside as she stripped the mattress, yanking the sheets away. But the stain had bled through even those. 

“Sweetheart, stop,” he coaxed, holding his hand out to her. “Come here.”

Her loose blond locks slid over her shoulder as she shook her head. She sniffed, and the little noise felt like a dagger in the pit of his stomach. “I did everything right,” she whispered, though whether it was to him or herself, he wasn’t sure. “I eased up on training. I drank Gothi’s nasty tonics… What’s wrong with me?”

“Astrid, come here,” he urged a little firmer. In the corner, he heard Toothless shift in his bed. His eyes dropped to the floor by the bed, searching for his prosthesis. 

“After I finish this,” she croaked, throwing the ruined sheets to the side. He watched her step toward the linen chest, but then she pulled up short, doubling over and clutching her belly with a hiss. Hiccup scrambled away from the desk, stumbling around the bed so that he could wrap her arms around her. They sank to the floor together, and a shudder wracked him as she made the most heartbreaking wail he’d ever heard in his life.

Hiccup pressed a kiss to her hair and held her tight, rocking her as she sobbed into his neck. Her fingers were knots in his night shirt, and her shoulders shook with grief. Hot tears seared his skin, and he looked to the ceiling with a prayer to any god that might be listening. Toothless had padded over, his eyes bright with concern as he watched. 

“We need to take you to Gothi,” he informed her, stroking her back as he crushed her against him. 

She shook her head and cried harder, the sound terrible and gut-wrenching. He’d never seen her like this, and it frightened him. Utter helplessness consumed him, gnawing at his aching heart as he stroked her hair and murmured words of comfort. 

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “We’ll try again.”

He wondered how much physical pain she was in.

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Hiccup exhaled, feeling his own wave of grief attempting to swell.

“You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

And then it crashed.


End file.
